Reddit’s Wide Audience Drives the Interview

From left: Snoop Dogg: How much weed have you smoked? Bill Nye: Where do you get your bow ties? Psy: Ever get bored doing the gangnam-style dance? Bryan Cranston: Could you make meth in real life?Credit
Left to right: Kevin Winter/Getty Images; Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images; Kevin Winter/Getty Images; Michael Buckner/Getty Images

Snoop Dogg was asked how much marijuana he has smoked in his life. (“how big is mt rushmore?” he replied.) Seth Rogen was asked if had luck with the ladies in high school. (“No,” he said.)

And last week, the creators of “Sharknado,” the made-for-TV disaster movie about man-eating storms, were asked whether the script was based on a true story. (Yes, the director said in so many words.)

The interviews didn’t take place on “Good Morning America,” Oprah’s couch or on a red carpet. It happened on Reddit’s Ask Me Anything, an unmoderated online forum that has become a new tour stop for celebrities.

In recent weeks, John Malkovich, Adrian Grenier, Bryan Cranston, Christopher Guest, Ethan Hawke, Bill Nye and Ellen Page, along with members of the band the Bare Naked Ladies, have subjected themselves to Ask Me Anything, where users can ask their subjects anything, like how to deal with balding (Louis C. K.), their worse fear (Stephen King) or their favorite breakfast (Psy).

Celebrity handlers say this Reddit format allows their clients to converse directly with fans (especially the tech-savvy young men who make up the majority of Reddit’s audience). “I hope it replaces press junkets,” said Erik Martin, general manager of Reddit, the popular social news site. “There is no way those can be exciting. It’s like trying to have a conversation during speed dating.”

Eric Kuhn, who directs social media at the United Talent Agency and whose clients include Judd Apatow, Johnny Depp, Gwyneth Paltrow and Owen Wilson, agreed. “I think we have crossed the Rubicon,” he said. “If you aren’t authentic and you don’t have a direct connection with your fans, it’s not going to work.”

Celebrities are requested by users or, increasingly, suggested by publicists. The Ask Me Anything format is pretty straightforward. After a brief introduction, users submit questions, which are ranked based on users’ up-or-down votes. The celebrity spends anywhere from 45 minutes to several days answering them, with each response prompting a flurry of comments.

These sessions were started in 2009 as a way for curious Reddit users to present free-form questions to a range of people that might include a crime scene cleaner or a former used car salesman.

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With more than three million subscribers, Ask Me Anything rivals many magazines and cable TV shows in terms of reach.

It received an added seal of approval last year when President Obama conducted a session a few months before the election. “If you want to know what I think about this whole reddit experience — NOT BAD!” the president wrote on Reddit after his Q. and A., which has been viewed more than five million times.

Since then, celebrity sessions take place regularly, sometimes two in a day. And a set of its own rules has been developed.

Questions should be answered by the celebrities, not their publicists. And the subjects should roll with the questions rather than stick to talking points.

Reddit users still recall a disastrous forum last year with Woody Harrelson, in which that actor (or his publicist) would steer every question back to “Rampart,” the film he was promoting at the time. It didn’t matter if the question was about his acting roles, sex life or use of pot.